


when in the presence of impossible wonders

by sanctuary_for_all



Category: Happy Death Day (2017), Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Genre: But also worth it, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epilogue, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Relationships developed under sci-fi circumstances can be tricky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17790977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: The last few days had been pretty weird for Carter. (Immediately follows 2019's "Happy Death Day 2U," so mega spoilers for both movies.)





	when in the presence of impossible wonders

The last few days had been pretty weird for Carter.

From what Tree had told him, he'd been there and done what he could to help the drunk girl he'd taken care of at a party through multiple days where she was murdered by her crazy roommate. From _his_ perspective, the drunk girl had freaked out the next morning, he'd followed her to see if she was okay, then heard a story he probably shouldn't have believed but somehow did. Then he spent the rest of the day with her, which had been fantastic, then nearly kissed her the following morning.

That was interrupted by the news that his roommate Ryan had _also_ started looping, oh and coincidentally had also built a device that was messing with time. This was _slightly_ less notable than the fact that Tree considered herself his girlfriend, a fact he would never have presumed on his own but supported 150 percent.

Then came the fight against the killer, which happened to be a parallel universe version of Ryan (who disappeared along with the sort-of explosion, a fact that would probably somehow come back to haunt them). Tree finally kissed him moments before they were sort-of-arrested by campus police, the device got confiscated, and then they were allowed to go back to their rooms and change before starting their community service. Somewhere in there, Tree had found a few moments to tell them all that _she'd_ also jumped to a parallel universe, though something about the look on her face suggested that there were things she was leaving out. Then came the nightmares, which Carter was pretty sure would be an ongoing problem.

The next morning actually looked like it was going to be normal for a little while, on-campus community service aside. Then DARPA happened, and it turns out they _loved_ the whole time manipulation thing and wanted to run with it. Though he felt he had to question the morality of trapping someone in a time loop, Carter had to admit his sci-fi loving heart was kind of into it. Yes, there were clearly moral complications involved, but science had discovered _time_ _travel_!

Then mysterious government agent guy asked Tree what she'd meant about being able to help them with the equations, and she opened her mouth to _tell_ them. He wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say, but the odds were pretty high that it would have something to do with the time-hopping, dimension-hopping, or something else that would make the federal government immediately go lock her up someplace so they could _study_ her. And Tree, who as far as he could tell had never seen a single sci-fi movie in her _life_ , would have no idea it was coming.

All of this flashed though his mind in an instant, along with a spike of pure terror worse than anything he'd felt when they were chasing after an actual _murderer_ yesterday. In the next instant, he cut her off before she could get a word out of her mouth. "She's good at math."

Every single person in their immediate circle turned to look at him with some version of confusion or "Are you insane?" on their faces. Tree's look was slightly different, more of a "Where exactly are you going with this?" that suggested she had an incredible amount of faith in him. It only made him more determined to protect her.

Mysterious agent guy pulled out his phone, scrolling through a file. "That's interesting. Her classes don't seem to reflect any interest in math."

"It's just a hobby," Carter ad-libbed quickly, trying to project calm certainty so it wouldn't look like every word out of his mouth was a lie. "She doesn't like the formal structure of the class environment." Inspiration struck. "But she gets distracted enough by it in some of her regular classes, so I don't think that helping—"

"Excuse me a moment." Now it was Tree's turn to interrupt him, holding up a finger with an expression that both seemed polite and vaguely promised death. "My boyfriend and I need to have a quick discussion about something. We'll be right back."

Then she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the hallway, shoving them both into a janitor's closet and shutting the door behind them. Once they were completely out of view, the "angry girlfriend" expression dropped off her face like it had never been there. "Listen," she whispered, "I didn't exactly explain this part, but when I—"

He covered her mouth with his hand, leaning in close so that his voice could go as quiet as possible. "In sci-fi movies, the government really likes making people who have experienced weird things 'disappear' so they can study them. If you'll remember, they were _just_ talking about trapping someone in a time loop so they could actually do that. What do you think they're going to do if they find out you've already collected a lot of their data for them?" Then he dropped his hand from her mouth, pulling back enough that he could see her face. "I'm sorry, but I just—"

Tree cut him off with a surprisingly (but wonderfully) intense kiss. Carter held on and tried to give it all back to her, overwhelmed and grateful that they'd somehow found each other on exactly the right night. The thought of not being able to be with her through all of this, the thought of not even _knowing_ about it, left him feeling shaky.

When they broke apart, she gave him that smile that already had way too much power over him. "Saved me again," she murmured, eyes shining. Then she patted his chest. "But when we go back out there, let me do the talking."

When they went back into the lab, Tree had her arm hooked through his. "Sorry," she told everyone, using what Carter had always thought of as the "sorority" voice. "Carter can get a little jealous of my time. New relationship, you understand." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "He's right about my grades, though. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave this to the three geniuses over there."

Behind the agent, Carter could see Ryan getting ready to protest. He glared his roommate down, hoping that he was successfully communicating without words that one wrong word would cause every single one of Ryan's electronics to end up in a shattered heap on the floor of their dorm room. Ryan, catching the implication, paled and swallowed back whatever he'd wanted to say.

The agent, still focused on Tree, looked like he knew he was missing something but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. "If you were involved in the project, even as a hobby, we'd love to have you continue working on it," he offered. "If you need us to, we'd new happy to talk to your professors for you."

Tree shook her head regretfully. "I wasn't involved in the project. Carter and I just kind of got dragged into it at the last minute."

The agent shrugged, clearly deciding that the situation was less interesting than the potential time machine in the room. "Fair enough. We can have agents drop you back on campus. You're still included in the exemption from the dean's punitive measures, but we'd appreciate it if you stayed out of his way for a little while."

Carter nodded, relieved at the clear dismissal. "We can do that."

"Absolutely," Tree agreed, but as an agent led them back out the door she couldn't stop herself from adding one more thing over her shoulder. "I still have the perfect candidate for a test recruit, though. Call me!"

000

They decided to hole up in Carter's room for the foreseeable future, which would be just theirs as long as Ryan was neck deep at DARPA. They were sitting next to each other on Carter's bed, knees touching as he looked through his computer for the movies Tree needed to see.

Next to him, she was writing down what he suddenly realized were equations. When she saw the worried expression on his face, she patted his thigh. "Don't worry, I won't give them to DARPA. But Ryan is easily cowed enough that I figure I can pass them onto him and still keep my secret."

Somehow, it wasn't comforting. The sci-fi angle that had seemed so interesting for a little while soured against the knowledge that Tree would probably always be right in the middle of it. He'd only had her in his life for a few days, at least in his timeline, but she already meant so much more to him than anything Ryan or the federal government wanted. "I'm not sure I want them to ever get it working again. We still don't know why it decided to reset around you the first time, which means it might pull you back in if it happens again."

She stopped writing, clearly struck by the idea, then firmly closed the notebook and set it aside. "You know what? Maybe it's a better idea to let nature take its course." Then she scooted closer, and Carter shifted his leg so she could get as close as possible. "So what are we watching? I'm not sure I'm in the mood for 'Groundhog Day' right now, but—"

" _Definitely_ not 'Groundhog Day.'" He pulled up the list of movie files. "I've got all of the sci-fi classics we need to catch you up on at some point, but right now I think a higher priority are movies that show how bad the government is to people who have gone through sci-fi experiences. 'Firestarter' seems like a good place to start, but it's hardly the only one on the list."

She shot him a fond look, but it quickly melted into something more fragile. "Why did you believe me, that first day?" she asked quietly. "Because yesterday we had Ryan saying he'd looped, the killer alternate version of him from another universe, freaky energy explosions, and today we had DARPA. But on Monday all you knew was that I ran out of here like a crazy person and you followed me to make sure I didn't jump off the bell tower or something. I didn't even do that thing where I told you everything that was going to happen before it happened, and it seemed like you believed me anyway."

"I did," he said quickly, not wanting her to doubt that even for a moment. "I didn't understand it at all, but it felt like you were telling the truth."

Tree narrowed her eyes a little, stubborn. "You didn't even know me."

He shrugged, not knowing how else to answer. "It felt like I did."

Her expression cracked at that, and she swallowed as she laid her head against his shoulder. "My mom was alive in the other universe."

Well, that would explain why she hadn't said anything. Carter carefully moved the laptop off his lap, threading their fingers together. "I bet that was tough," he said carefully.

She nodded, not lifting her head. "I know it wasn't my life, and my parents had all these memories I hadn't experienced, but..." She let out a breath. "I almost stayed anyway. I really wanted to, for awhile."

He understood that, he really did. The fact that it felt like the worst thing that could have possibly happened to him had nothing whatsoever to do with the situation. "What made you decide to come back?"

There was a moment of silence, then she squeezed his hand. "I had to," she said finally, voice thick. "You were here."

The words rocked him. He stopped breathing a little, staggered and humbled and suddenly scared of the moment she finally realized he was just an average guy. He couldn't imagine he could have _possibly_ done anything during the loops to be worth choosing him over her mother, wrong memories or not. He just... he was just _him_.

In the continuing silence, he felt her tense next to him. "I know this is probably really weird for you." She started to pull away from him. "You don't remember everything that I do, and even if you did that doesn't mean you signed up for all—"

Suddenly realizing where she was going with this, he pulled her back into his arms and held on tight. "I absolutely did sign up for this," he managed, throat closing up. "And I really, _really_ wish I remembered everything, because maybe somewhere in there I'd get an idea of what on earth I could have possibly done to deserve someone like you."

"I'm the kind of person who turns perfectly nice people homicidal." The words were unsteady, and she held on just as tightly as he did. "I'm nothing special."

"You also take on killers with a _baseball bat_ , and come out of a _time loop_ and _dimension jump_ smiling and ready to fight." He pressed his face against her hair. "You're _amazing_."

"You're the reason I made it." Her voice was wet now. "I would have gone crazy without you."

His own eyes were damp as he pulled back enough to see her face. "You don't have to hold back _anything_ from me," he said fiercely. "And I swear I will do everything in my power to catch up. I want to _so much_."

They both leaned in to the kiss, softer but somehow also more intense than any of the other ones they'd managed. They were _saying_ things with this kiss, promises that were way the hell too early to make with actual words but somehow still felt exactly right.

When they broke apart, she grinned at him even though there was still the shimmer of tears in her eyes. "Now, how about you start educating me about the evils of secret government agencies?"

Carter grinned back at her. "I can definitely do that."

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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